Florida broker ordered to pay US$1.8m for negligent misrepresentation

Florida brokerage firm HMY Yacht Sales was last week found liable for "negligent misrepresentation" regarding a US$2.6m yacht it sold in 2007. The verdict was rendered last week by a federal jury in a lawsuit brought by a Rhode Island man who claimed that the 66ft sportfishing vessel he purchased through HMY was "unseaworthy".

Real estate developer Brian O'Neill filed the lawsuit after purchasing a 2005 66ft sportfishing vessel in March 2007 through HMY. According to court documents, O'Neill purchased the boat in Florida after a sea trial and survey. But in April 2007, on a trip from South Florida to New England, court documents said that one of the boat's transducers began to leak, sludge came out of the fuel tanks, and the hull started "flexing" in deep water. A subsequent survey by a naval architect in Rhode Island found that the boat was "structurally unsound" and "unseaworthy." A preliminary estimate to repair the vessel was US$600,000 to US$1m.

The jury held that HMY Yacht Sales was 85 per cent negligent. It also held Jim Barboni, the broker for the deal, was five per cent negligent. The judge ordered the company to pay US$1.8m in damages.

The jury also found that the boat's previous owner, Richard Talbert, and his company were ten per cent negligent. Talbert had previously settled with O'Neill out of court.

"In the yachting industry, it's a very important decision — a 'sea change' if you will," Alexander Bono, lead attorney for O'Neill, told the Miami Herald. "Very few people take on the yachting industry."

Source: IBI News